Economics will outweigh SMB fear of cloud computing

SMB IT

The debate rages on as to whether public cloud computing will ever be a suitable and safe option for enterprises, but one industry insider has claimed it will be the route forward for most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

David Hill, vice president of sales for Spirent Communications, in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), admitted there was fear around putting company information out into the cloud, but the cost savings would entice SMBs to at least investigate the technology.

"I think some of the small medium enterprises, in fact most of them, will end up in the public cloud as time goes on [and] it is all [about] economics again," he said during an interview with IT PRO at NetEvents 2010.

Hill claimed IT was "not the core" of most SMB business plans so it was just a task that needed to be ticked off.

"[SMBs] don't generally have IT literate people in their organisation, and quite frankly don't really want them in their organisation," he added.

However, with the use of public cloud space, Hill believed the IT challenges SMBs have to face could be solved and fear of issues such as security would fade as cost savings become more evident.

"I still think there is a bit of fear, uncertainty and doubt out there," he concluded, "but there always has been with new technologies. It is always a challenge to get them to accept changes in technology [but] with public cloud and SMBs it [will] happen."

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.